5 min readJul 13, 2026 05:16 PM IST
First published on: Jul 11, 2026 at 01:37 PM IST
How difficult could it be to explain how I felt about Lionel Messi, and why no other athlete came close to inciting the same degree of emotional distress or elation? Despite the great aplomb with which I began writing this, half an hour later my thoughts had drifted instead to what the word “athlete” really meant.
Quickly referencing both the Oxford and Cambridge dictionaries, both definitions centred on organised competition and physical capability. Still, something was missing; The effortless superiority Messi’s biomechanics afforded him failed to justify the fervour born in the wake of his movements on the pitch.
It was not until the 79th minute of the Argentina-Egypt game that Cristian Romero’s goal sowed the seeds for my proverbial Eureka moment. As I lay lamenting the fact that the greatest of all time was about to be unceremoniously escorted off the international stage by a team unlikely to even make it to the finals, the last 13 minutes of the game flowered into some of the tensest football.
It was not, however, until Enzo Fernández’s winning goal in the 90+3rd minute that my Archimedean breakthrough manifested. Messi’s greatest skill has been to concentrate the pressure and responsibility of performing onto his diminutive shoulders, in turn freeing up space for his teammates to play the game as they’d like, in the boots of a child who has no expectation to impress but only to perform.
It is not simply the fact that he motivates others to play better or think faster, but his mere presence on the pitch that gives his teammates freedom from consequence.
No one wanted to be the reason for the greatest player in the world to fail. After Messi’s 2008 Olympic gold medal win, the Argentine football team lived through a decade of defeat. Messi himself bore the brunt of constant criticism that his club set-up was where he could perform, and that perhaps he wasn’t Argentine enough to finish the task.
In the 2018 World Cup, before current manager Lionel Scaloni’s appointment, this stagnation was obvious. The midfield seemed to care not about open passing lanes or the tactical set-up. The team trivialised its importance in the game by reducing its purpose to simply getting the ball to Messi. Every pass became an act of anxious deterrence, which forced the ball into the suffocating thicket of defenders in which Messi was marooned.
The 2021 Copa América and 2022 World Cup wins obliterated this trust deficit. Lionel Scaloni (hailed by most as too green to be an effective manager back in 2018) successfully cocooned Messi in a system where the midfield operated smoothly regardless of his presence while overloading the central spaces of the pitch. Messi’s movements accentuated those of his teammates while allowing him to play as he liked.
By finally hoisting the World Cup, the existential weight of legacy was lifted not just from Messi’s shoulders, but from the nation’s soul. The concept of loss aversion dictates that the pain of losing is twice as powerful as the pleasure of gaining. Winning that trophy eradicated the threat of that devastating loss.
Snapping back to the present, Messi’s performance in this World Cup can be likened to a black hole. Receiving the ball with ease, Messi’s runs collapse the spaces between his opposition’s lines, drawing entire defensive structures inwards. His role is no longer confined to simply that of a leader — his magnetism makes him a guardian to whom opposing systems flock.
By commanding that overwhelming defensive focus, Messi has vacuumed the structural and emotional stress completely out of the final third. He has created a physical and mental sanctuary for his teammates, which was visible in the precise cross Lautaro Martínez calmly delivered to Enzo Fernández, who, playing with the joyous freedom of a child in a backyard, surged into the box to score the 3–2 winner.
The dictionaries that so clinically define an “athlete” by physical capability and organised competition will always fail to capture what Lionel Messi has become in 2026. He is no longer just a footballing marvel carrying the hopes of millions; he is a psychological shield. By absorbing the gravity of an entire sport onto his bulletproof legacy, he has granted his teammates the ultimate gift: The safety to play a beautiful game beautifully, entirely free from the fear of making mistakes.
The writer is a correspondent with The Indian Express. arav.shah@expressindia.com
His role is no longer confined to simply that of a leader — his magnetism makes him a guardian to whom opposing systems flock. 
Share
